It wasn’t the theater operation that led them into debt, it was financing Redstone’s takeover of Viacom, the theater operation was used as collateral and Redstone doesn’t want to sell control of the Viacom, therefore he sold off Midway and other holdings, the theater chain is the last thing to go. Regal stuck its core – they operate cinemas, they never got involved in the content production as far as I know. They got into trouble because they kept buying chains and some had terrible locations in development during the boom that opened as Regals (see Bergen Plaza in North Bergen, NJ). AMC is owned privately by a holding company that is comprised of investment banks, although they have some publicly held debt. Cinemark, Carmike and Regal are publicly traded.

If Redstone can sell the theatre complexes at a good price he might be able to retire the debt. I hear they plan on keeping 17 sites in the Northeast, no word on what theaters they’ll be. NA has a lot of real estate including property that their abandoned drive ins still stand on, some of which they have flee markets at on weekends. I think it might be nearly impossible for us, the public, to get a read on all of N/A’s assets as they are privately held, but I wonder if a sale/lease back type of agreement might allow them to continue to operate certain sites.

CinemarkFan: If this kind of awful debt has gotten to National Amusements, and AMC, and then to Regal, what will happen to the independent movie palaces that’re left here in the United States, as a whole?

Hmmmm……..Interesting. Thanks for the info, Roger Katz. So, if Showcase Cinemas decides to sell other branches of their Cinemas in other states, do you think that will that mean somewhat fewer multiplex cinemas? Again, I’m just curious.

United Illuminating? Never heard of them. Who/what are they? Just curious. I, too, have heard about the sale of some of the Showcase Cinemas. I wonder, however, if another big franchise, such as AMC or Regal’s will buy them.

At the old Showcase in 1980 I saw a sneak preview of “Flash Gorden”. My friends and I joked about how “maybe Queen (soundtrack) and Dino DeLaurentis (producer) might be there” (in Orange CT). We all laughed. I went to get popcorn and there was Dino DeLaurentis and the rock group Queen (without Freddie).

These were the best theaters outside of NY. Shortly after, the 3 theaters were split in half with a wall to make 6 – unfortunately the angled seats in each made this strange. A 7th small theater was added later on. When it was just the 3 my mom had taken me there to see 2001 – amazing as I recall.

I’m irritated by this. I was going to be in New Haven visting friends in April and I had some hope of getting inside for some photos. The Showace Orange was interesting to me, mind you’ve I’ve only seen one movie there, but by the layout it seemed as though every auditorium was fairly large. As though it was an original 8-plex that they always meant to expand/cut to 16 but then Hoyt’s built in Branford and took the business.

National Amusements is closing the theater effective March 3rd, 2008. According to a spokesperson, it is no long “financially viable” for the theater to remain open.

Sad to see the theater go, many great memories.

Anyone remember the ticket taker, Cliff? He was there as long as I’ve been going to the theater (since around 1992) and I always felt he was the heart and soul of the place. Hadn’t seen him in years, so assumed he’d passed or retired.